Sudan’s invisible children – born in war with no legal identity

Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing

A 17-year-old Sudanese girl holds a young child in her arms with a heavy calm that belies her age and the concerns she has for his future.

“This son of mine has no father, no birth certificate and no national number,” Amira, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, tells the BBC.

Looking down at him, she speaks slowly as if still trying to grasp the details of what has happened to her since the civil war erupted in Sudan.

She and her family used to live in the eastern neighbourhoods of el-Fasher, a city that came under siege from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been in a brutal power struggle with the military since April 2023.

El-Fasher was the army’s last stronghold in the western region of Darfur until it fell to the RSF and allied Arab militias after 18 months last October.

For the tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside the city, it was a nightmare – with constant bombardment, clashes and suffering from a lack of food.

In the end Amira and her family decided to flee early in 2025, desperate to find a safer area.

But as they snuck out on a road south-west of the city, she says she was abducted by three armed men from the RSF and held captive.

“They blindfolded me and took me to the Tabit area south of el-Fasher. I was locked in a room for two months, and every day one of them raped me in turn,” she recounts in a low voice

After weeks in captivity, she discovered she was pregnant and became very sick.

Amira says when the men wanted to get rid of her, they dropped her near the area she had been captured.

It was with the help of other people fleeing el-Fasher that she was taken to receive medical help.

Months later, at a humanitarian hub that was not under RSF control, she gave birth at a hospital run by the International Medical Corps.

There she received some support from a Sudanese aid organisation – the Nada Al-Azhar Foundation for Disaster Prevention and Sustainable Development (Nada).

The group was also able to find her family, who had made it to a camp where hundreds of thousands of people from el-Fasher have sought refuge.

It was a huge relief for them all to be reunited, but the family still face challenges – one being that eight months after giving birth, Amira has been unable to register her son’s birth.

“Even getting a birth notification from the hospital requires information that doesn’t exist,” says Amira, explaining that she is unable to provide any details about the child’s father.

Without this she cannot organise any official recognition of the baby’s legal identity.

“I can’t get him vaccinated, or enrol him in nursery or school,” she says.

“I’m afraid for his future because he isn’t registered at all. My economic situation is very difficult, and I can’t afford his treatment or care. I can’t even go to work for fear of being exposed to violence again.”

According to Nada, Amira’s story is not an isolated case, but part of a reality repeated in areas experiencing conflict across Sudan.